The Great Chocolate Wall of China

The Great Wall of China is one of the most impressive engineering feats in the world, stretching almost 3,900 miles and surviving for hundreds of years. However, nobody ever claimed that it tasted very chocolatey.

Chocolate engineers hard at work constructing the Chocolate Great Wall of China

But now, that one flaw has been rectified, as a team of Chinese confectioners have built a 10 metre long replica of the structure entirely out of chocolate – in a bid to entice Chinese people to eat more of the sweet stuff.

The chocolate wall is made from solid dark chocolate bricks stuck together with white chocolate, and is one of the attractions at the World Chocolate Wonderland exhibition and trade show which will open to the public later this month.

Chocolatier Wang Qilu said his version of the ancient wall was a feat of engineering in itself, with a carefully constructed crumbling section at one end to resemble the real thing. He also had to make sure his materials did not melt.

‘You have higher and lower levels and you have to fit each brick into place, one by one, to build it up, it’s difficult,’ he said.

Up to 80 tonnes of chocolate were used in making the displays, which also include a mini-army of 560 chocolate replicas of the famous Terracotta Warriors standing to attention on a layer of chocolate flakes.

Making sure that the chocolate Terracotta Warriors are properly laid out

The show’s general manager, Tina Zheng, said she hoped the displays would give chocolate a boost in the Chinese market and its billion-plus consumers.

‘Chocolate has not been around in China that long, it doesn’t have that several-thousand-year history that it does in the West which has made chocolate as common as milk or fruit,’ she said.

‘While in China, chocolate is a speciality or something given to children, in general, it is not widely known.’

Local and foreign chocolate manufacturers will take part in the show, she added.